Escape
by Ally and Becky
Summary: Post season five. Some new and old friends come together in a new place.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Tribe is property of Cloud 9. The only elements belonging to these authors are Cassandra, Ayla, and other folks like that.

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Alice sat in the corner of the cage, twisting her hands as she tried to alleviate the chaffing the shackles were causing. K.C. sat beside her, rolling his eyes as The Guardian was off on yet another tirade about Zoot.

"I swear, Alice, there's but so much more I can take of that lunatic," he said. Alice nodded.

"I couldn't agree with you more, K.C," she said. She sighed and stopped twisting her hands, deciding that no matter what she did, the shackles were going to pinch into her skin. "Hey, K.C?" She asked. "When you were at the other camps, was there anyone else there?"

"Just some kids, and Bray," K.C replied.

"You didn't see Ellie?" She asked. K.C looked at her and shook his head sadly.

"No," Alice looked down. "But, she's probably out there somewhere," he said, doing his best to assure her. "I'm sure she's okay," he reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing it gently. "And we'll see her and the others again when we get out of here," he said. Alice smiled, taking hope from his words.

"I hope you're right," she said.

"This is a test from the Almighty Zoot. He wishes to test my faithfulness in amongst the trenches of these heathens. I shall not abandon you Zoot; your testing makes me stronger and only more worthy to preach of your glory."

Alice looks around to see if any guards are nearby. She brings up her shackled hands and brings both of them in direct contact with The Guardian's forehead.

Alice lets out a sign of relief. "Much better" she said as The Guardian slumped back unconsciously. The other kids in the cage muttered their thanks to be finally rid of his constant babbling, if only for a short while.

"Go, Alice," K.C cheered as he chuckled.

"I never get tired of doing that," Alice said as she smirked proudly in response.

The two friends sat back and looked off into the distance, same as they had been doing since they had been brought into Techno custody. "Do you think Amber finally had the baby?" K.C asked.

"Well, it's been long enough, so I would hope so," Alice replied. She sighed, "I just hope she had the baby far away from this mess,"

"I didn't get much time to talk with him, but the first thing Bray asked me for was news about Amber. He told me there had to be a way out of this, I hope he was right."

"Our Bray, forever hopeful," Alice muttered. K.C. sighed.

"She's probably with the baby," K.C. began, looking off. "She might've gotten away………..And Trudy helps her with the baby. I mean she has already been through it and everything. And now Brady could have someone her own age to play with, well closer to her age." he smiled.

"I bet those two are like peas in a pod, always together. Brady walks off somewhere and you see this little thing crawling behind her." Alice laughed.

"Do you believe that?" Alice asked, laughing at how silly that sounded. K.C. frowned.

"Maybe I do, it's better than thinking about this place," he replied indignantly. Alice sighed and tilted her head towards him, resting her head against the cage near his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that," she apologized. K.C tilted his head towards her, resting his head against hers. The two of them were the only Mallrats in this place, they had to stick together.

"It's okay," he replied.

"I just want everyone to be safe; I don't care much about what they are doing so long as they are not behind bars like us. It's the best thing I can hope for at the moment." Alice said staring off into the distance.

The two sat there for a while, thinking about their friends when the door to the cage opened. K.C. and Alice sat up to see what was going on and saw a few Techno guards. One was holding the door open as two of them shoved a guy in. The guy weakly stumbled to the ground in a defeated heap as the door was closed again and the guards walked off. K.C and Alice watched the guy.

He was on his knees, slumped forward with his hands and forehead touching the ground. His body shuddered before he simply lay on his side, facing K.C. and Alice. His face was covered in dirt, the only part seemingly clean were lines from his eyes that traveled down to his chin, evident that he had done a fair share of crying. Alice and K.C. peered at him and their eyes widened as the face became clear in their heads.

"Bray?" Alice asked, surprised. His vacant eyes gazed up at her and K.C. Alice smiled broadly.

"Bray, I can't believe it," K.C. exclaimed.

"Alice…….K.C……" he muttered, before fresh tears rolled down his face.

"Bray, what is it? What's wrong?" Alice asked. K.C. leaned over and took hold of Bray's arm, pulling him towards him and Alice. Bray aided him weakly by pushing his feet on the ground, pushing himself backwards. "What is it?" Alice asked again.

"I……..I heard some of the guards talking," he said. "They said that there was something wrong in the city………there was some……….some type of explosion or something…..The city's been destroyed….." K.C. and Alice looked at each other, shocked. "Amber…..She……" Bray brought his knees up to his chest and rested his head in his hand, his fingers buried in his hair. "She could've been in the city, I-"

"No, no, you don't know that," Alice said, although she began to worry if Ellie had been there.

"Alice's right," K.C. said. "You told me that the last time you saw her, she was in that barn you two found……She might've stayed there…..or found the Eco Tribe. Hey she managed to get out and survive an explosion before, maybe she has just gotten good at that sort of thing." Alice elbowed KC, who winced. "What did I say? It's possible."

"It's called tact you should use some every now and then." Alice scolded KC.

Bray shook his head. Ever since he was taken by the Technos, he had worried about Amber and his baby constantly. She had been in the middle of having the baby when he was taken. What if, with no one there to help her, something happened to the baby? What if something had happened to her? These thoughts only fueled his desire to get out of the prison camps even more, but with hardly any fellow prisoners willing to risk their lives at the hands of the Technos, the former rebel leader was unable to orchestrate an uprising.

He held onto the hope that Amber was out there somewhere, safe, taking care of their healthy child. But after he heard of the city being destroyed, that hope seemed to vanish.

"Bray, you don't know what might've happened. Who's to say anything actually happened?" Alice asked. "Those Techno twerps might've been making it all up. It isn't like they are above playing mind games with people."

K.C. gripped Bray's shoulder tightly, making the older male look up at him. "We all thought Amber was dead once, Bray," he reminded him. "Remember that? We were all so sure Amber died with Zandra, but she didn't, did she? You found her once, and you'll find her again." Bray let his head fall back and rest against the chain linked cage wall. K.C. was right, there was a time that all the Mallrats had thought that Amber was dead and buried. But she wasn't. She was found by Pride and became Eagle. Bray squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to hold onto the sliver of hope K.C's words provided. Maybe a miracle would happen again and he would be able to find the woman he loved against all odds. But whatever happened Bray knew he was not strong enough to withstand the loss of the only woman he ever truly loved a second time, not to mention the loss of a child he had yet to meet.

Alice couldn't stand seeing Bray so defeated. She had to do something to cheer him up.

"Do you think it's a boy or a girl?" She asked. K.C. gave her a look that said 'why are you bringing this up?' Alice ignored him as she gave Bray a smile. "I bet it's a boy," she said. "A little strong willed terror, just like his daddy. I bet he crawls about, going anywhere he can, giving poor Amber the runabout," Bray laughed slightly at that. Alice smile widened, seeing her words were having the right effect at him. He looked at her, hope in his eyes.

"Maybe he has Amber's eyes," he said. "And my nose,"

"Yeah," Alice said. She watched as Bray looked off with a slight smile, imagining his child. "And when we find the others, he'll crawl over to you and latch his tiny hands to your pant leg."

Bray had always known that Amber was a woman strong enough to fend for herself, and this was part of why he loved her so much. He used to think that between himself looking after Amber and what she did on her own, nothing could happen to her. He prayed to whatever glimmer of hope, of whatever remnants of a twisted deity that lay out in the universe that this was still true. He had been broken left without hope of escaping this place, without the hope of seeing Amber again. But his son or daughter could still be out there somewhere, could he really live the rest of his life not knowing what the child looked like. Could he ever be truly satisfied until he had searched every corner of the earth for Amber and their child? He owed them more then that, he owed himself more then that. And now he had something which had not been present at the other camps, allies. Maybe this situation was not so hopeless after all. Perhaps his chance of finding Amber once again was one in a million, but that sliver of a chance was enough of a reason to continue on living and more importantly a reason to go on fighting.

"Are you sure bringing up the baby was a good idea?" K.C. asked Alice, keeping his voice low.

"Look at him," Alice replied, pointing out his soft smile. "He's too busy thinking about his baby to be negative," she said.

"If you're sure," K.C. shrugged and leaned back. On the other side of Alice, The Guardian slowly regained consciousness and sat up. His eyes fell on Bray.

"The brother of Zoot," he said, his lips stretching into a sick smile. "This must be a message from the divine himself,"

"Oh, will you shut up?" Alice growled. The Guardian ignored her as he went on and on about the greatness of Zoot and how Zoot would come to his aid once all heathens were converted.

"And here I thought we were done with this loony," Bray muttered.

"Well you can hit him if you want, usually makes me feel better." Alice commented.

"I'm too tired for violence," Bray sighed. Alice shrugged.

"I'll do it then," she said. She raised her arm and slammed her elbow backward, hitting The Guardian right between the eyes and cutting him off mid-rant as he slumped backwards again.

"Nice to see you haven't lost your touch, Alice," Bray said.

"I do what I can to keep sharp around here. You never know when an opportunity might present itself." Alice said quietly feeling rather proud of herself.

"Hasn't happened yet though, these Technos are pretty tight with security. Haven't seen them slip up once." KC commented looking around to make sure no guard were listening in.

Bray seemed to be in deep thought. "Maybe we are looking for the wrong thing." he said

"What do you mean?" asked Alice

"We keep waiting for them to do something wrong, we aren't looking for the best time to make something go wrong for them." Bray said seeming to get more upbeat.

"I'm intrigued," Alice said. "Go on,"

"It feels just like old times," K.C smiled. Bray smiled, starting to feel like things would finally be all right.

"Up for doing a little distraction?" Bray asked K.C, causing the younger man to grin.

"Always," he said.


	2. Chapter 2

Once a plan had been created things should have gotten better. The ragtag group of Mallrats should have been filled with hope and happier then they had been in a very long time, but things never were that simple. The days only seemed to stretch on at an agonizingly slow pace as they waited for the right time to make their move. As usual Bray had come up with a very good plan for escape, but this plan hinged on waiting for the perfect moment to strike, and the perfect guard to take down. For the next week they slept in shifts, taking turns watching the guards and memorizing their schedules. Perhaps this was overcautious, but this was a one time only chance. They had not been the first to attempt an escape, not by a long shot. People had tried the old fake sick and get a guard to come in the cage thing before, they had tried to dig their way out of the cage, and in one particularly interesting case attempted to seduce a guard. Alice, Bray, KC, and anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck in a techno run prison had seen it happen. People would attempt escape and they would never be seen again, at least not like they were before.

There had been several rumors flying around the camps about people who would get in trouble, and suddenly become an entirely different person. Drugs, torture, or some weird electronic device no one knew; but it was clear that the Technos knew ways to neutralize any threats to their power. No one was willing to risk it; this was part of why the Technos had been so successful in holding everyone for so long. Everyone was afraid of the Technos and the power they possessed.  
It is an old adage that people hate what they fear, and the opposite of that is often true as well. While everyone in the camps was afraid of what the Technos might do to them, no one liked them. Bray in typical form spent nights quietly whispering to those in his cell convincing them to join in. Many were hesitant, but Bray assured them that if they were to be caught they could always deny knowing about the plan in the first place, with little other hope of ever escaping most of their cell mates agreed to their small part of the plan.

Escape plans that had been attempted before relied on the guards' sympathy, lust, or inability to notice a giant gaping hole in the floor of a cage as being suspicious. Bray's plan hinged on something no one had been brave enough to attempt before, the guards cruelty. While everyone had their part to play the plan largely hinged on KC, he would be the distraction or perhaps to put it in more accurate terms, he would be the bait. As luck would have it there was a guard who was notoriously bad tempered and abusive, who just so happened to be assigned to the late night shift.

Bray nodded, the movement was slight but it was easily caught by KC who had been waiting for it all night. He turned and looked over; sure enough the guard was approaching. His palms were sweating but his face remained calm, he had pulled off some pretty big lies before he hoped his talent for acting was still there.

"I'm telling you that's why they wear those silly looking tin can things over their faces." KC said in a loud tone.

"Shut up, he will hear you!" Bray said in a slightly more hushed tone.

The guard stopped but made no movement towards the cage, he wanted to hear more of this conversation. His expression impossible to read due to the mask which covered half of his face.

"All I'm saying is that the Technos want to have this perfect image. I mean you never see fat Technos do you?" KC continued on

"Well I guess not." Bray answered.

"Well most tribes have something that all of their members do, you know a painted mark, a type of outfit, a hairstyle. Well how come half of the Technos wear those metal masks and the other half don't?" KC said. He silently prayed that this would work, that his measly insults would be enough to get the guard in here

"I don't know, I never really thought about it." Bray answered

"Well they want to be like the ultimate tribe, so they make sure that the ugly members wear masks. It's as simple as that." KC said his eyes darted about nervously wondering if the guard would take the bait...

"What was that?" The guard asked stepping in towards the cage.

"Oh nothing it was nothing" Bray attempted to explain

"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the chunky little weasel next to you." he said pointing out KC.

"I was just explaining how great the Technos were." KC continued to pray

"Oh, really?" the guard said skeptically crossing his arms.

"Yes, it's so nice of them. I mean you guys may keep us locked up in cages, but at least you're nice enough to wear masks so that we don't have to see your ugly faces every day. That would really be cruel and unusual punishment." KC barely got the words out of his mouth before the guard ran to the cage.

He had the presence of mind to shut the door behind him, but it made little difference. Within seconds Alice and Bray were on him. Alice tripped the guard as he entered, and Bray hit the guard on the head ensuring that he would be knocked out. Some of the people were still in shock over how quickly it had happened and how easily the guard had been fooled, but Bray knew there was no time to waste. He fumbled for the guards keys and unlocked his own shackles, quickly tossing them over to Alice next, the keys made their way around the cage but no one made a move, not yet.

Once everyone had been unlocked they made a run for it. With everyone running off in different directions they would be much harder to hunt down and catch. Although many of the group elected to leave the Guardian to rot in the cage. However, when he swore by Zoot that he would attack the remaining Techno guards and rain the wrath of Zoot upon them, it was decided that he would probably keep the guards distracted longer and was let go.

Alice, K.C and Bray ran together amongst the crowd of fellow escaped prisoners.

"Where do we go now?" K.C. huffed and panted as he tried to keep up with his friends.

"I saw some boats over by the beach when they brought me here," Bray said loud enough for not only K.C and Alice to hear but also the others.

"AHH!" A frail girl screamed as she stumbled to the ground and proceeded to be trampled on by the crowd. Alice slowed down her pace and helped the girl to her feet.

"Come on," Alice encouraged as she half dragged/half carried the girl along, encouraging her to walk on her own feet.

"They're escaping!" Yelled a voice. K.C. chanced a look behind him to see a few Technos coming out of their tents and start after them.

"Bray!" K.C. exclaimed, getting the attention of their "leader".

"Just keep going, we're almost there!" Bray encouraged. True to his word, they soon reached the edge of the beach, where, as Bray had said, there was a line of motorized boats varying in size. The other escapees rushed to the boats and began boarding them. Alice handed the injured girl to one of the people on one of the larger boats before finding K.C. and Bray getting onto the one remaining boat.

"Hang on!" She called out as she rushed over. K.C. took her hand once she was close enough and helped her step onto the boat. Alice and K.C. watched as one by one the other boats took off from the shore with the passengers giving hoops and hollers of joy while Bray went about getting the boat to start.

"Uh, Bray, would you mind hurrying it up over there?" K.C. asked as he saw some Technos reaching the beach.

"I'm trying!" Bray replied as he kept trying to get the motor to turn over.

"Well try harder," Alice said. Alice and K.C. watched as the Technos got to the shore with Bray still fighting with the motor. "Bray!" Alice yelled just as the motor finally began to purr as it should.

"Got it!" Bray yelled, relieved as the boat lurched forward, causing Alice and K.C to stumble. "Sorry about that," Bray apologized.

"Forget the apologies, just keep going!" K.C. responded. The boat sped up as it left the shore, leaving the Technos to strew in their fury.

"WHOO!" K.C. yelled out, throwing his arms in the air. Alice laughed and the two hugged. They made their way over to Bray and stood with him as he steered the boat away.

"We did it," Alice smiled, putting a hand on Bray's shoulder. Bray turned back and nodded smiling "Yea, we made it out of the prison. Now we have got to figure out how to get back to the Mall."

"Hey for the first time in months I'm not in shackles, let's just enjoy the moment." K.C said. Alice cast Bray a sad look.

"But, Bray, what if the city really has been destroyed? Then the Mall isn't there anymore," she said.

"Alice, you said it yourself; those Techno freaks might have made the whole thing up. I'm not going to believe it until we see it for ourselves. We have to find Amber, Ellie and the others," he replied. Alice smiled, holding onto his optimism.

"You're right," she said. Bray nodded, giving her a smile.

"Come on Alice, you're the one who made me regain hope. Don't go losing yours now," he said, joking lightly. Alice's smile brightened.

"I won't," she said.

"Good," he said. He turned to K.C. "K.C, check around the boat. See if we've got any food or anything," K.C. nodded.

"Aye, Aye, Captain," K.C said, giving Bray a mock salute as he climbed below deck to look around. Bray laughed before looking at Alice. "You should get some rest," he said.

"I'm fine," she said.

"Alice, you were up all of last night watching the guards and you were up all of today. Go, rest," he said. Alice sighed and nodded. The adrenaline that had entered her body once it was decided that this would be the night that their plan would go into action diminished her fatigue. But now, after being up for so long and running across the beach, she was about ready to fall into a deep slumber. "Go on," Bray said. Alice went below deck. She caught sight of K.C. looking around before she found a resting spot in the corner. She settled herself down and was about to close her eyes when she felt K.C. lay a blanket over her.

"I found this, along with some tin food and water," he told her.

"Thanks," she said. K.C. nodded and went back up to keep Bray company. Alice let loose a happy sigh as she settled on the floor and let the rocking of the boat lull her into a peaceful sleep. The first peaceful sleep she'd had in a long time. Up top, Bray heard K.C. coming up the stairs.

"Anything?" He asked.

"Water, tin food, a blanket," K.C. reported. Bray nodded.

"How much food and water?"

"Not a whole lot," he said. "Just four small bottles of water and two tins of beans and about three of those weird Techno food bars," K.C shuddered lightly at the mention of the bars. It was all the Technos would give them to eat. Their meals consisted of some water and a bar. K.C had never liked the taste of them and only ate them so as not to starve, and even then, starvation seemed tempting.

"Well, we'll just have to make it last as long as we can," Bray said. K.C. nodded and sat down on the bench near the steering wheel. He leaned his head back and stared up at the cloudy starfilled sky.


End file.
